A Global View of Wikipedia: The Art and Science of Large-Scale Visualization

Abstract: When trying to make sense of large datasets, visualization becomes a challenge both computationally and artistically. It no longer becomes possible to show every data point on a computer screen without overlap or distortion and many algorithms which could lay out the data break down. It is at this point that one must find algorithms which can scale to meet your data visualization needs and cognitive processing and design principles must be used to make the most of what you can show. Furthermore, fluid interaction is hindered with so many data points and special care must be taken to allow for interactivity. In this talk, I will be discussing how we have dealt with these issues and more when visualizing all of the English Wikipedia.

Biography: Bruce W. Herr II is a full time software developer at Katy Börner's Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center at Indiana University. He enjoys making beautiful, extensible, usable, and maintainable software. Research interests are information visualization, human-computer interaction, taking advantage of cognitive processing in software, software design, aesthetics in visualization, and extensible software. Major software projects are the Taxonomy Validator, InfoVis Cyberinfrastructure, CIShell: Cyberinfrastructure Shell, and Network Workbench. He has worked on many large-scale visualizations including Movies&Actors , Wikivis (1, 2, 3, 4), Neurovis , and the US Patent Hierarchy Vis. Originally from North Vernon, Indiana, Bruce received his BS in Computer Science in 2004 from Indiana University.